We collect and Disseminate donated cameras and equipment to worthy organizations and programs in need.

It is our goal at Community Photography Outreach to ensure that the perspectives of all populations-marginalized or otherwise- are represented through the photographic image, by creating greater access to equipment and materials.

We at Forward Focus: Workshops with Creative Purpose & Community Photography Outreach believe art has the power to inspire, move, create new understandings, perspectives, as well as to motivate action and change on a personal and global basis. Personal stories and images appeal to the heart as well as the intellect and are therefore able to transcend political, social, and economic beliefs and boundaries.

Historically the global perspective recorded through the photographic image has often been limited to that of the economically advantaged. From fine art to commercial, documentary to editorial, almost every photographic image is an expression of a perspective defined by a certain socio-economic class. A picture truly is worth a thousand words.We use the power of imagery to celebrate and promote projects of people who have engaged with purpose.

CURRENT PROJECTS:We collect and disseminate donated cameras and equipment to worthy organizations and programs in need.

"Our vision is to enable every child to go to school and achieve the level of education they desire."

Empowerment International is lookiong for your used camers to build a program for children in Granada, Nicaragua. These young people are already doing Amazing work!

Al-Rowwad: Images for Life, a community-based photography and video project in Aida Refugee Camp in Palestine trying to provide a "safe" and healthy environment to help children creativity and discharge of stress in the war conditions they are forced to live in.

… because we believe that the images are a powerful tool for change and a beautiful means of resistance.

Shooting with cameras from a Palestinian refugee camp

The first project of its kind in Palestine, 'Images for Life' is a two-year program giving professional film and photography training to forty locals in Aida refugee camp, Bethlehem. 'Images for Life' is a window of creative opportunity in a community where unemployment is sky-high, living conditions are cramped and seperation wall and military incursions are a brutal reality. With your support, 'Images for Life' will be able to continue and expand, enabling more local people to use art to tell their stories in a non-violent struggle against the injustices they face.

Images for Life is giving the Palestinian people a chance to tell their stories to their families, communities, and world. This is the first photography and video training center in a refugee camp in Palestine, and its appeal has drawn participants not only from the camp, but also from surrounding villages, Jerusalem, and even as far as Hebron.

In an area of the world where so much of the media is focused on violence and conflict in the region, this project puts cameras in the hands of local people. They are given the opportunity to show the world through their own eyes.

The group is now in the middle of the training portion of the program. They then plan to use their professional training to make a collective work. Altogether, the project will last two years with the hope it will encourage similar training centers in other communities.

The photo group is very active. In June, we finished preparing the dark room (possibly the only darkroom for youth in Palestine) and we participated to a competition called "the colors of my city". The group meets at least twice a week to develop their technics and look at the pictures they took during the week. In September, we plan to have a photo exhibition on their lives stories, and we will be preparing a book from December on.

Images for Life is currently looking for other partners in this project, such as professionals who can offer workshops or their expertise, training materials, equipment, and continued funding. The youth group is also interested in establishing exchanges with other film and photography groups internationally. For more information, to volunteer, to partner with us or to make donations, please contact imagesforlife@gmail.com

We live in a news culture that presents the most traumatic and tragic sound bites of world events from one catastrophe to the next. It is easy to become overwhelmed by desensitization, fear and disempowerment and withdraw. Those who stay engaged often do so in the form of polarized political or intellectual debate.

Who We Are ForwardFocus Workshops are a pioneering series of nonprofit educational journeys for experienced and emerging photographers and writers who want to cover developmental, environmental, and relief efforts worldwide. Through intensive instruction and hands-on participation, the Workshops provide an opportunity to complete a body of work, to contribute in a meaningful way to projects that make a difference, and to embark on a profound adventure of personal discovery and cultural exchange.

Forward Focus Workshops

Mission
Forward Focus Workshops utilize the power of visual imagery and the written word to support and encourage grassroots nonprofit initiatives dedicated to fostering social and environmental change. The Workshops provide a collaborate forum that combines
education, adventure, and creative purpose to celebrate and promote acts of compassion, connection, and contribution.

HOW IT WORKS

Forward Focus wants to help the helpers. We work with NGO's by hosting volunteer-vacation photography workshops where photographers are guided to combine adventure with philanthropy while learning digital photography techniques in the field. We believe that by bringing our gifts and our talents—whether web design, photography, writing, labor, or money—and by pooling our efforts with projects already in place, we can become giants with our efforts.
Working with ForwardFocus’s experienced instructors—including veterans of the prestigious Santa Fe and Maine Photographic Workshops—small groups of 8 or fewer participants will embark on an intensive creative journey. The emphasis will be on shooting, and for those interested in publishing their work, reporting. We’ll spend most days in the field photographing NGOs at work in our host communities, and combine that experiential learning with sessions in PhotoShop, how best to approach subjects.

PILOT WORKSHOPS
Many of the most exciting and meaningful conservation, development, and relief projects underway today are taking place on the continent of Africa. Beginning in fall 2007, we will launch several workshops in Uganda and Tanzania.
In Tanzania, the focus is conservation: Participants will embark on a remote, luxurious safari with Corbett Bishop, an American-born guide whose Ol Tukai Conservancy is pioneering grassroots conservation efforts in the villages near Lake Tanganyika.
In Uganda, the focus is development and relief work. Participants will be based on the Nile River.

Leslie Alsheimer is the director of the Santa Fe Digital DarkroomPhotography Workshops, which provide professional and customized photography workshops in exotic locations around the globe. She believes in using photography to help empower others to find their own creative voice and vision. She was the creative director of the book Reality from the Barrio, a social documentary honored in the PDN Photography Annual 2003: The Best Photos of the Year. Inspired by a traditional wet darkroom photography program that Leslie developed for a non-profit's gang diversion program, the book became a thesis project for Leslie's master's degree in social work.

Elizabeth Hightower is the literary editor of Outside Magazine, North America’s premiere environmental and adventure magazine. A native of Nashville, Tennessee, living in Santa Fe, Elizabeth worked at several national magazines, including National Geographic; her own articles and book reviews have appeared in Outside, The New York Times Book Review, Play: the New York Times Sports Magazine, Preservation, Organic Style, and The Washington Post. Developing the reporting and writing aspects of ForwardFocus Workshops, she is eager to help writers and photographers turn their adventures into meaningful, publishable stories that can gain valuable exposure for the nonprofits they document.

AFFILIATED PHOTOGRAPHERS:
Michael Clark

OBJECTIVES:
-to provide an online clearinghouse to link photographers with projects and nonprofits fostering social or environmental change
-to hire local college students to serve as guides, liaisons, and to learn technology
-to give back to projects materially: donate cameras, photographs, write brochures, etc.

Other Projects:

We collect and Disseminate donated cameras and equipment to worthy organizations and programs in need.

Historically the global perspective recorded through the photographic image has often been limited to that of the economically advantaged. From fine art to commercial, documentary to editorial, almost every photographic image is an expression of a perspective defined by a certain socio-economic class. It is our goal at Community Photography Outreach to ensure that the perspectives of all populations-marginalized or otherwise- are represented through the photographic image, by creating greater access to equipment and materials. Thus creating a greater awareness and understanding of the issues and challenges facing society as a whole.

The goal of these projects is to provide economically disadvantaged
young people from local communities a chance to discover their creative potential through
photography. These projects offer opportunities for local youth to
participate, free of cost, in photographic workshops held in partnership
with the Santa Fe Photographic Workshops & Santa Fe Digital Darkroom. Students are instructed
in a positive, supportive environment that fosters the development
of skills in the art of photography, and provides a medium for empowerment
and self-expression.

HOW
CAN YOU HELP?

As a non-profit organization, we rely on foundations, sponsors and
individual donors. Your donations are critical to the success of this
program.

Forward Focus and Community
Photography Outreach operate in partnership with Santa Fe Digital Darkroom Workshopsand the non-profit organization Santa Fe Council for the
Arts. These organizations have come together to build on our shared
vision. Please join us in giving the gift of photography!